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Introduction
To research raw materials for your LCA, start by reflecting on your product’s composition. The databases linked below are a helpful starting point for exploring the raw materials that go into your product. We’ve categorized our recommendations according to several major material types. Navigate through the tabbed box below to get started!
Resources to Get Started
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Biological and Agricultural Index Plus (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
- What's included? Indexing of approximately 300 core periodicals in biology and agriculture.
- What dates are covered? 1983-. Updated daily.
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FSTA - Food Science and Technology Abstracts (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
- What’s included? Food Science & Technology Abstracts (FSTA) provides access to citations and abstracts dealing with all human food commodities and food processing (except for the production of raw food). Topics covered include microbiology, toxicology and hygiene, economics and statistics, engineering, packaging, and many food products. FSTA indexes articles, patents, standards, books, conference proceedings, research reports, dissertations, and legislation. Updated weekly.
- What dates are covered? 1969 - Present
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SciTech Premium Collection (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
- What’s included? Citations to, abstracts, and full text of scholarly research and technical literature in disciplines related to natural sciences and technology. Content covered includes scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, government publications, and more.
- What dates are covered? 1946 - Present.
- What else should I know? Comprises the sub-databases: Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Database; Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Index; AGRICOLA; Agricultural Science Database; Aquatic Science & Fisheries Abstracts; Biological Science Database; Biological Science Index; Computer Science Database; Earth, Atmospheric & Aquatic Science Database; Engineering Database, Engineering Index; Environmental Science Database; Environmental Science Index; Materials Science Database; Materials Science Index; Meteorological & Geoastrophysical Abstracts; Oceanic Abstracts; Science Database.
- What’s included? Citations to, abstracts, and full text of scholarly research and technical literature in disciplines related to natural sciences and technology. Content covered includes scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, government publications, and more.
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ChemSpider This link opens in a new window
- What's included? From the Royal Society of Chemistry. Access to physical data on over 25 million compounds. Search by chemical name, synonym, trade name, registry number, SMILES, InChI, CSID, structure image, chemical elements, properties, and more.
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SciFinder-n (Chemical Abstracts Service, CAS) This link opens in a new window
- Getting started: You must be a URI student, staff, or faculty member with a valid email address ending in "uri.edu" to use this database. You will need to go to the CAS registration site from a URI computer and set up an account with CAS. Successful registration results in an email with a link that you must click to finish registration. (You may also need to enter a verification code to authenticate before proceeding.)
- What’s included? An enhanced search tool accessing the same content as SciFinder Scholar that provides results ranked via relevance as a default. Provides access to additional tools such as PatentPak, MethodsNow Synthesis, and RetroSynthesis. It saves all of your search history via a calendar for later access. There are no limits to the number of results returned. Access is restricted to URI students, faculty, and staff.
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TOXLINE (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
- What’s included? Citations and abstracts from core journals in all areas of toxicology, including chemicals and pharmaceuticals, pesticides, environmental pollutants and mutagens and teratogens. Produced by the National Library of Medicine.
- What dates are covered? 1999 - Present.
- What else should I know? Part of the Agricultural & Environmental Science Database.
- What’s included? Citations and abstracts from core journals in all areas of toxicology, including chemicals and pharmaceuticals, pesticides, environmental pollutants and mutagens and teratogens. Produced by the National Library of Medicine.
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SciTech Premium Collection (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
- What’s included? Citations to, abstracts, and full text of scholarly research and technical literature in disciplines related to natural sciences and technology. Content covered includes scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, government publications, and more.
- What dates are covered? 1946 - Present.
- What else should I know? Comprises the sub-databases: Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Database; Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Index; AGRICOLA; Agricultural Science Database; Aquatic Science & Fisheries Abstracts; Biological Science Database; Biological Science Index; Computer Science Database; Earth, Atmospheric & Aquatic Science Database; Engineering Database, Engineering Index; Environmental Science Database; Environmental Science Index; Materials Science Database; Materials Science Index; Meteorological & Geoastrophysical Abstracts; Oceanic Abstracts; Science Database.
- What’s included? Citations to, abstracts, and full text of scholarly research and technical literature in disciplines related to natural sciences and technology. Content covered includes scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, government publications, and more.
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GeoRef (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
- What’s included? Provides access to the geoscience, geochemistry, and geophysics literature of the world, with citations and abstracts to journal articles, books, maps, government reports, conference papers, and theses and dissertations.
- What dates are covered? Covers North America from 1669 to the present and the rest of the world from 1933 to the present.
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ASM Handbooks This link opens in a new window
- What's included? Contains peer-reviewed information on metals and materials technology.
- What else should I know? Published by ASM International.
- What's included? Contains peer-reviewed information on metals and materials technology.
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Inspec (Engineering Village) This link opens in a new window
- What’s included? Abstracts and indexing to the world’s scientific and technical literature. Provides coverage from over 3,400 journals, 2,000 conference proceedings as well as numerous books, dissertations and reports in the subject areas of physics, electrical engineering, electronics, communications, control engineering, computing, information technology, manufacturing, and production, mechanical engineering, and more.
- What dates are covered? 1898 - Present.
- What else should I know? This database is produced by the IET.
- What’s included? Abstracts and indexing to the world’s scientific and technical literature. Provides coverage from over 3,400 journals, 2,000 conference proceedings as well as numerous books, dissertations and reports in the subject areas of physics, electrical engineering, electronics, communications, control engineering, computing, information technology, manufacturing, and production, mechanical engineering, and more.
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Scopus (Elsevier) This link opens in a new window
- What’s included? Multidisciplinary abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature with tools to track, analyze, and visualize article and literature use. Includes journal articles, books, book series, conference papers, and more. Alternative to Web of Science. Indexes close to 35,000 titles.
- What’s included? Multidisciplinary abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature with tools to track, analyze, and visualize article and literature use. Includes journal articles, books, book series, conference papers, and more. Alternative to Web of Science. Indexes close to 35,000 titles.
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Textile Technology Index (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
- What’s included? Citations and abstracts for over 400 periodical titles and for thousands of titles drawn from sources such as books, conferences, theses, technical reports, and trade literature on topics relating to the scientific and technological aspects of textile production and processing. Coverage is international in scope and includes related subjects such as the management of textile production and the apparel, home furnishings, flooring, and polymer industries.
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Handbook of Technical Textiles
by
Call Number: ebookISBN: 9781782424581Publication Date: 2015Information about the textile industry including commercial spinning, weaving, knitting, and other production techniques.
Related Guides
Depending on the composition of your product or its components, the guides below may provide more specific information regarding key databases, handbooks, or websites. The "Industry Information" guide includes tips on searching business databases and how to find relevant industry codes to aid in searching.
Search Tips
Feeling stuck? If you’re finding the resources linked above hard to navigate and are feeling lost, you might want to backtrack and get some more basic information about the materials you’re investigating. Reading the Wikipedia page on your material or looking it up in a reference tool like Credo Reference (linked below) can help you get oriented!
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Credo Reference Academic Core This link opens in a new window
- What's included? Hundreds of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, and subject-specific titles, as well as 200,000+ images and audio files, and nearly 200 videos.
Business and Industry Information
To search for a product by its associated company, or to find industry reports concerning a product, try the following business databases.
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D&B Hoovers (Mergent) This link opens in a new window
- What’s included? Offers detailed company and industry profiles on over 188 million businesses, both public and private, around the world. Company profiles include description of business, company history, key financials and stock information, links to SEC filings, and list of competitors. Industry profiles offer industry description, competitive landscape, products and technology, finance and regulation, industry indicators and trends, and list of companies in the industry. Reports and data can be downloaded.
- What else should I know? Hoover's does not always work well in Firefox; if you are asked to log in, switch to a different browser.
- What’s included? Offers detailed company and industry profiles on over 188 million businesses, both public and private, around the world. Company profiles include description of business, company history, key financials and stock information, links to SEC filings, and list of competitors. Industry profiles offer industry description, competitive landscape, products and technology, finance and regulation, industry indicators and trends, and list of companies in the industry. Reports and data can be downloaded.
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ProQuest One Business This link opens in a new window
- What’s included? Comprehensive business library containing millions of full-text items across scholarly and popular periodicals, newspapers, dissertations, books, videos, and more. Also provides access to market research reports, company reports, industry reports, and country reports.